[KLUG Members] Formatting a drive: Is it clean?

[greenproc]

Adam Tauno Williams wrote:

> Or you can use any LINUX boot/rescue disk and..
> 
> dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/hda bs=512
> 
> Run it through at least three times.

Ah, the most simple and straightforward way of doing something <G>

I wonder how this would compare to the Guttman DOD algorithm advertised
in many of the disk wiping utilities.  Unless one is worried that the
disk platters will be subjected to a clean room with advanced equipment
and a highly paid physicist, it makes no difference no?

What if you want to wipe only free space within the filesystem, and the
cooresponding entries in the partition "table" -- to loosely use the term?